UPCOMING EVENTS

Morpholio is adding a new measurement tool to its interior design app Trace, enabling artists and designers to use Apple’s augmented reality technology to precisely measure rooms and the objects in them in an automated fashion. The company is also introducing a new app, called Board, that allows artists and interior designers to create better designs based on how colors will look in the real world.

The new update for Trace taps Apple’s ARKit platform, which is available with iOS 11 (Apple’s mobile operating system, launching today). Morpholio’s Trace can now be used on an iPad to create virtual perspective grids, which makes complex measurements and sketching much easier. Trace and Board are part of a suite of Morpholio apps that are useful for people in visual design.

The new AR Perspective Finder feature is a drawing tool that lets users figure out the proper measurement scale of objects in a real-world scene so that they can re-create them in a digital sketch.

Trace is a drawing app for architects and designers that infuses digital magic into the analog tools of trace paper, technical pens, rulers, triangles, and stencils, said Toru Hasegawa, cofounder of Morpholio, in an interview with VentureBeat.

Above: Board helps you match colors in your designs.

Image Credit: Morpholio

“We want it so that anybody can draw with the accuracy of a professional artist,” Hasegawa said. “Now we can put grids on a scene, just by pointing your iPad at it.”

To use the feature, launch the iPad camera from within the Trace app’s Projects area and find a surface. The iPad will automatically register the surface and present you with a grid. Rotate your grid with a swipe of your finger, and set your center point with a “tap.” You will now have a scaled grid virtually presented to walk through or rotate around.

Hasegawa believes that AR is the future for creative people, architects, and designers.

“A user could jump into a map and capture the physical world in high resolution,” Hasegawa said. “These tools can add a layer on the real world and give you actual dimensions. We feel this can augment the creative process.”

Morpholio’s Board app lets you virtually explore and sample color from the world around you. The AR Color Capture feature within the Board app lets you virtually sample, experience, and record colors from the real world and bring them into an art app. It enables designers to figure out what kind of decor will fit in a real-world setting. If you’re shopping for furniture, you can use Color Capture to figure out if the colors in the store’s furniture will match your home or office.

Trace is available in the app store through a subscription fee. The apps are free to download, and subscriptions are available for $12 a year or $4 per month.